DRYING FRUIT. 



would have all committees to make their examinations and awards before the exhibi- 

 tion of fruits is thrown open to the public, and then exhibitors should be allowed to 

 place their names upon the fruits, and give as much publicity to it as possible, and all 

 the prize collections and articles should be conspicuously so designated. 



To the other propositions we give our cordial assent, and commend the whole 

 article to those who are about to take a part in the direction of exhibitions. — Ed.] 



DfiYING FRUIT.* 



It has been observed that the amount of Peaches consumed in a single week in 

 the city of New York, exceeds the total consumption of fruit in Great Britain 

 throughout the entire year. The sales of perishable fruits are rapidly increasing 

 throughout the country ; but there is one serious drawback to their extensive culti- 

 vation — that is the necessity of crowding them into market at the critical period of 

 their maturity, so that twenty-four hour's delay shall not witness their destruction by 

 decay and fermentation, and result in their total loss. Hence the immense superiority 

 in this particular, of long-keeping sorts — which may be deliberately secured and held 

 in market for many months, till the best time shall be selected for their disposal. 



But there is another important avenue to market for the perishable fruits that is at 

 present almost unknown in its perfected form. We allude to preservation by drying. 

 Every farmer thinks he has seen dried Apples and Peaches, but not one in a thousand 

 has seen them — properly so called. That which usually appears under this name, 

 consists in the first place, of a selection of such inferior, poor-flavored fruit, as can be 

 used for nothing else ; this is imperfectly pared, leaving a due proportion of skin and 

 core remaining, and is then variously subjected to partial decay, smoking, drying, &c., 

 forming when completed, a singular medley of all colors, from brown to nearly black, 

 and with nearly as various an intermixture of flavors. Those who wish to see dried 

 fruit in perfection, must remember that a poor-flavored sort before drying, can never 

 by any ingenious process become finely-flavored afterwards. The very finest vareities 

 must therefore be first chosen. The process of drying must then be so rapid that no 

 decay nor even discoloration shall take place until the operation is completed. Our 

 climate is too precarious to think of drying fruit properly in the open air, even for the 

 earliest varieties. Some artificial arrangement for the purpose must therefore bo 

 devised. 



The great leading defect of all the plans we have seen for drying by fire-heat, is a 

 want of circulation in the heated air — a deficiency in rapid ventilation. A high tem- 

 perature is given by means of stoves to a close apartment, the air of which in a few 

 minutes is heavily charged with moisture from the fresh fruit, and a sort of steaming, 

 stewing, half-baking process then commences, producing after a long delay, an article 

 far diS'erent from that of a perfectly dried, finely-flavored fruit. A free circulation of 



* From the Covntry Gentleman, 



